What is an Invisible Character Detector?
Text that “looks identical but doesn’t match” almost always contains invisible Unicode: zero-width spaces from web copies, BOMs from files, non-breaking spaces from word processors, even bidi controls used in spoofing.
The scanner names each invisible character found with its Unicode codepoint and count, and produces a cleaned copy.
Frequently asked questions
Where do these characters come from?
Copying from web pages and PDFs, word processors substituting typographic spaces, and some AI/text tools inserting zero-width markers.
Why do they break things?
“admin” with a zero-width space is a different string from “admin”: lookups, comparisons and code fail while looking correct.
Are any of them legitimate?
Yes: non-breaking spaces and joiners have real typographic uses. The problem is when they arrive uninvited into identifiers and data.
What are bidi controls?
Characters that flip text direction: abused in “Trojan Source” attacks to make code render differently than it executes. Worth detecting.